{"title":"Daphne Merkin","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"this-close-to-happy-book-daphne-merkin-9781250159298","title":"This Close to Happy","description":"This Close to Happy is the rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression, written from a woman's perspective and informed by an acute understanding of the implications of this disease over a lifetime.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571108323601,"sku":"GOR011915335","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50378753179921,"sku":"CIN1250159296G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423262605585,"sku":"CIN1250159296VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52902741704977,"sku":"NLS9781250159298","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53082991657233,"sku":"NIN9781250159298","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1250159296.jpg?v=1750953370"},{"product_id":"this-close-to-happy-book-daphne-merkin-9780374140366","title":"This Close to Happy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Favorite Read of 2016\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespair is always described as dull, writes Daphne Merkin, when the truth is that despair has a light all its own, a lunar glow, the color of mottled silver. \u003ci\u003eThis Close to Happy\u003c\/i\u003e--Merkin's rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression--captures this strange light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDaphne Merkin has been hospitalized three times: first, in grade school, for childhood depression; years later, after her daughter was born, for severe postpartum depression; and later still, after her mother died, for obsessive suicidal thinking. Recounting this series of hospitalizations, as well as her visits to myriad therapists and psychopharmacologists, Merkin fearlessly offers what the child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz calls the inside view of navigating a chronic psychiatric illness to a realistic outcome. The arc of Merkin's affliction is lifelong, beginning in a childhood largely bereft of love and stretching into the present, where Merkin lives a high-functioning life and her depression is manageable, if not cured. The opposite of depression, she writes with characteristic insight, is not a state of unimaginable happiness . . . but a state of relative all-right-ness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this dark yet vital memoir, Merkin describes not only the harrowing sorrow that she has known all her life, but also her early, redemptive love of reading and gradual emergence as a writer. Written with an acute understanding of the ways in which her condition has evolved as well as affected those around her, \u003ci\u003eThis \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eClose to Happy \u003c\/i\u003eis an utterly candid coming-to-terms with an illness that many share but few talk about, one that remains shrouded in stigma. In the words of the distinguished psychologist Carol Gilligan, It brings a stunningly perceptive voice into the forefront of the conversation about depression, one that is both reassuring and revelatory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49572001448209,"sku":"GOR012937837","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49900413419793,"sku":"CIN0374140367G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52109259571473,"sku":"GOR010864288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52499587399953,"sku":"CIN0374140367A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52773854970129,"sku":"CIN0374140367VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374140367.jpg?v=1750910278"},{"product_id":"fame-lunches-book-daphne-merkin-9781250074768","title":"The Fame Lunches","description":"Daphne Merkin brings her signature combination of wit, candor, and penetrating intelligence to subjects that touch on every aspect of contemporary culture, from the high calling of the literary life to the poignant underside of celebrity and our collective fixation on fame. Merkin's elegant, widely admired profiles go beneath the glossy facades to consider their vulnerabilities and demons, as well as their enduring hold on us. Here one will encounter a gallery of complex, unforgettable celebrities, from Marilyn Monroe to Mike Tyson, and from Courtney Love to Truman Capote. Merkin also offers reflections on writers as varied as Jean Rhys, W. G. Sebald, John Updike, and Alice Munro. Most of all, though, Merkin is a writer who is not afraid to implicate herself as a participant in our consumerist and overstimulated culture. Merkin helps makes sense of our collective impulses. From a brazenly honest and deeply empathic observer, The Fame Lunches shines a light on truths we often prefer to keep veiled and in doing so opens up the conversation for all of us.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49611638341905,"sku":"GOR012052978","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51021834125585,"sku":"NIN9781250074768","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332751556881,"sku":"CIN1250074762VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51416862261521,"sku":"CIN1250074762G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52658787680529,"sku":"NLS9781250074768","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1250074762.jpg?v=1751049473"},{"product_id":"fame-lunches-book-daphne-merkin-9780374140373","title":"The Fame Lunches","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA wide-ranging collection of essays by one of America's most perceptive critics of popular and literary culture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of America's most insightful and independent-minded critics comes a remarkable new collection of essays, her first in more than fifteen years. Daphne Merkin brings her signature combination of wit, candor, and penetrating intelligence to a wide array of subjects that touch on every aspect of contemporary culture, from the high calling of the literary life to the poignant underside of celebrity to our collective fixation on fame. Sometimes it seems to me that the private life no longer suffices for many of us, she writes, that if we are not observed by others doing glamorous things, we might as well not exist.\u003cbr\u003e Merkin's elegant, widely admired profiles go beneath the glossy fa ades of neon-lit personalities to consider their vulnerabilities and demons, as well as their enduring hold on us. As her title essay explains, she writes in order to save myself through saving wounded icons . . . Famous people . . . who required my intervention on their behalf because only I understood the desolation that drove them. Here one will encounter a gallery of complex, unforgettable women--Marilyn Monroe, Courtney Love, Diane Keaton, and Cate Blanchett, among others--as well as such intriguing male figures as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Truman Capote, and Richard Burton. Merkin reflects with empathy and discernment on what makes them run--and what makes them stumble. \u003cbr\u003e Drawing upon her many years as a book critic, Merkin also offers reflections on writers as varied as Jean Rhys, W. G. Sebald, John Updike, and Alice Munro. She considers the vexed legacy of feminism after Betty Friedan, Bruno Bettelheim's tarnished reputation as a healer, and the reenvisioning of Freud by the elusive Adam Phillips.\u003cbr\u003e Most of all, though, Merkin is a writer who is not afraid to implicate herself as a participant in our consumerist and overstimulated culture. Whether ruminating upon the subtext of lip gloss, detailing the vicissitudes of a pre-Yom Kippur pedicure, or arguing against our obsession with household pets, Merkin helps makes sense of our collective impulses. From a brazenly honest and deeply empathic observer, \u003ci\u003eThe Fame Lunches\u003c\/i\u003e shines a light on truths we often prefer to keep veiled--and in doing so opens up the conversation for all of us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49652499546385,"sku":"GOR010150561","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323436761361,"sku":"CIN0374140375A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415754703121,"sku":"CIN0374140375G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374140375.jpg?v=1751038901"},{"product_id":"22-minutes-of-unconditional-love-book-daphne-merkin-9780374140380","title":"22 Minutes of Unconditional Love","description":"Judith is an ambitious book editor in her late twenties living and working in New York City. Inexperienced with romantic love, she works hard, sees a small group of friends, and visits Dr. Munch, her beloved therapist, on whom she is dependent. Three weeks after her therapist’s death, Judith reluctantly attends a cocktail party. Her life changes the instant she meets Howard Rose, a charismatic and commanding lawyer thirteen years her senior with whom she becomes sexually obsessed.   Swept off her feet, everything she does is now about Howard: He calls her at work, instructs her on what to wear to dinner, and takes control of her body and sexuality with complete ownership. Judith becomes dependent on the push-pull of their sexual entanglement and on Howard’s attention and approval, convinced she’s found the man of her dreams. Until, that is, she understands he’s the man of her nightmares: hostile, reckless, and manipulative, he seems intent on obliterating any sense of self and autonomy that Judith possesses. Escaping Howard’s grasp - and her own perverse enjoyment of being under his control - becomes her mission.   Narrated by a Howard-free Judith years later, Daphne Merkin’s 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love charts the persistent hold our pasts have on us. Stylistically varied and punctuated by provocative ruminations on love, family, sex, gender, and relationships, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love is a psychologically voracious descent into sexual obsession, the story of the hazardous extent to which one woman will go to achieve erotic bliss, and of her resolve to reclaim her agency.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50022552666385,"sku":"CIN0374140383VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50349483458833,"sku":"CIN0374140383A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50349485785361,"sku":"CIN0374140383G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374140383.jpg?v=1751390861"},{"product_id":"22-minutes-of-unconditional-love-book-daphne-merkin-9781250798657","title":"22 Minutes of Unconditional Love","description":"A novel of unsurpassed candor, punctuated by bold ruminations on love, marriage, family, sex, gender, and relationships, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love depicts one woman’s psychological descent into sexual captivity. This is the story of the extremes to which she will go to achieve erotic bliss and of her struggle to regain her soul.  As Daphne Merkin’s audacious new novel opens, a wife and mother looks back at the moment when her life as a young book editor is upended by a casual encounter with an intriguing man who seems to intuit her every thought.  Convinced she’s found the one, Judith Stone succumbs to the push and pull of her sexual entanglement with Howard Rose, constantly seeking his attention and approval. That is, until she realises that beneath his erotic obsession with her, Howard is intent on obliterating any sense of self she possesses. As Merkin writes, his was “the allure of remoteness, affection edged in ice.” Escaping Howard’s grasp and her own perverse enjoyment of being under his control will test the limits of Judith’s capacity to resist the siren call of submission.  Narrated by Judith in a time before the #MeToo movement, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love charts the persistent hold the past has on us and the way it shapes our present.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50129808392465,"sku":"CIN1250798655VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51021927153937,"sku":"NIN9781250798657","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51695673737489,"sku":"CIN1250798655G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52486034882833,"sku":"NLS9781250798657","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1250798655.jpg?v=1750889346"},{"product_id":"enchantment-book-daphne-merkin-9780151287918","title":"Enchantment","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA bold, provocative pioneering novel (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e) about family, womanhood, and growing up\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet on Manhattan's Upper East Side, \u003ci\u003eEnchantment\u003c\/i\u003e is narrated by Hannah Lehmann, the wry survivor of a troubled childhood. Hannah's perceptions of her Orthodox German Jewish heritage--her five brothers and sisters, the complicated power of families, the madness of money, the obsessive workings of memory itself--are as disquieting in their sharpness as they are lucid in their irony. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe world, she finds, is a treacherous place where love is closely knit with pain, but even the limitations of her own point of view are not lost on Hannah. She is all too aware that her perspective is fixed in the vise of her childhood: My mother, she says, is the source of my unease in the world and thus the only person who can make me feel at home in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a novel about what people say when they are talking to themselves; what families look like when they are not observed by others. Provocative, hawkishly observed, and devastating in its reliability, Daphne Merkin's \u003ci\u003eEnchantment \u003c\/i\u003eis a searing and unforgettable exploration of family and self.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345066660113,"sku":"CIN0151287910G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0151287910.jpg?v=1750779204"},{"product_id":"dreaming-of-hitler-book-daphne-merkin-9780156006118","title":"Dreaming of Hitler","description":"\"Lush and uncensored\" essays (Village Voice) on spanking during sex, shopping, Martin Scorcese, Israel, breast reduction, Gary Gilmore, depression, and other matters, by \"one of the few contemporary essayists who have (and deserve) a following\" (New York). \"Everything Daphne Merkin writes is so smart, it shines\" (Washington Post Book World).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345250095377,"sku":"CIN0156006111G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999558340881,"sku":"NIN9780156006118","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0156006111.jpg?v=1750694425"},{"product_id":"dreaming-of-hitler-book-daphne-merkin-9780517706268","title":"Dreaming of Hitler","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50352023437585,"sku":"CIN0517706261G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0517706261.jpg?v=1750741467"},{"product_id":"enchantment-book-daphne-merkin-9780374140397","title":"Enchantment","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA bold, provocative \"pioneering novel\" (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e) about family, womanhood, and growing up\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Set on Manhattan's Upper East Side, \u003ci\u003eEnchantment\u003c\/i\u003e is narrated by Hannah Lehmann, the wry survivor of a troubled childhood. Hannah's perceptions of her Orthodox German Jewish heritage--her five brothers and sisters, the complicated power of families, the madness of money, the obsessive workings of memory itself--are as disquieting in their sharpness as they are lucid in their irony.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The world, she finds, is a treacherous place where love is closely knit with pain, but even the limitations of her own point of view are not lost on Hannah. She is all too aware that her perspective is fixed in the vise of her childhood: \"My mother,\" she says, \"is the source of my unease in the world and thus the only person who can make me feel at home in the world.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This is a novel about what people say when they are talking to themselves; what families look like when they are not observed by others. Provocative, hawkishly observed, and devastating in its reliability, Daphne Merkin's \u003ci\u003eEnchantment\u003c\/i\u003e is a searing and unforgettable exploration of family and self.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50414326415633,"sku":"CIN0374140391VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001773523217,"sku":"NIN9780374140397","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52452429037841,"sku":"NLS9780374140397","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52957653205265,"sku":"CIN0374140391G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0374140391.jpg?v=1750845477"},{"product_id":"enchantment-book-daphne-merkin-9780586087114","title":"Enchantment","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50446167998737,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50446168686865,"sku":"GOR004659005","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0586087117.jpg?v=1751327404"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-daphne-merkin.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}